BPA Free Bottles

Yes I am jumping on this bandwagon. I am sure I don't need to say much about BPA as it is covered in the press ad nauseam. I had heard the concerns about BPA a few months before it blew up and had people throwing away all of their hard plastics. I just didn't think it was that big of a concern. There is so much to worry about that I just decided to put the concern out of my mind and focus on other things.

Then it was the big news headline for a few weeks. It was everywhere I turned. I began to question if I should continue sending my daughter to daycare with her hard plastic bottles, BPA filled bottles. Again I pushed it out of my mind as much as possible until I saw a piece on the Today Show. Their resident medical expert made a statement that changed my mind. She said that as a doctor and scientist she could not say that there was any link between BPA and cancer or any other medical ailment. However as a mother she said that she would find alternatives for her children. That was it. I tossed my daughter's bottle out that day and went to Babies R' Us to buy her the two remaining Born Free bottles that were on the shelf. I also learned that http://www.medela.com/ISBD/breastfeeding/products/bottles_bisphenol-a-free.phpbottles that come with the pump are BPA free so I started using those as well. Just this week I received the free sample that Playtex offered of their drop-in model and think I will start using that now as well.

So now that I don't have to worry about BPA anymore. What should I be worrying about now? ;)

Mam Pacifiers

Even if you believe that pacifiers are a bad habit and shouldn't be used for that long you will need to use one at some point during the first year of life. Don't kid yourself into thinking that you will be strong enough to soothe your child in other ways. Trust me there will come a time when you wish you had one just to give you 5 minutes of peace.

I didn't have any issues with my daughter using a pacifier. My problem was that my daughter couldn't seem to keep them in her mouth. When she was in the co-sleeper I would often fall asleep with my finger in her soothie so that it would stay in place. Or we would zip her jacket up just high enough so that she would keep her pacifier in during the car ride to daycare.

I tried every brand of pacifier that existed and tried larger and smaller sizes and couldn't seem to find one that worked. Until I bought a couple Mams. I popped the Mam into my daughter's mouth and it was like magic. It didn't pop out. I threw every other brand out and now that is all we use. Besides working for my daughter they are also great because they are weighted on the reverse side so that when they do fall out, they don't land on the pacifier so unless you are a germaphobe you don't have to sterilize it before handing it back to your child.

I also just learned that you can buy customized Mams with your child's name. I wish I had known as this would have been great for daycare as it seems that all the kids have the same pacifiers.